"Finding George Orwell in Burma" by Emma Larkin

A familiar name, George Orwell was the British author who penned the renown classic works “Animal Farm”(an allegorical retelling of the Russian Revolution) and “1984” (totalitarianism at its oppressive worst).  In Emma Larkin’'s FINDING GEORGE ORWELL IN BURMA, the genesis of his literary origins is thoroughly explored as she travels across the country where he spent five years as an officer in the Imperial Police Force. 

Burma was a British colony in the 1920’s when Orwell was there.  It gained its independence in 1948.  It incurred a political uprising in 1988 against its military rule.  Today, as Larkin notes through her following Orwell’s steps to Mandalay, the Delta, Rangoon, Moulmein, and Katha (all stations in his police service), Burma more closely resembles the fictionalized totalitarian worlds he created in his books than any free and independent state the people would hope to see.

In every stop, Larkin discovers parallels that confirm this.

In Mandalay, where she assembles a eclectic group of Burmese literary enthusiasts for an impromptu Orwell Book Club (such gatherings – especially with a foreigner – were illegal), she learns that although Burma is poor and its people impoverished, the official government word to the world is the country is progressing.  In “1984”, Winston Smith rewrites articles of the past to conform to the Party’s policies of the present.  A promised ‘no reduction in chocolate rations’ is rewritten, after the reductions are made, to warn of an upcoming chocolate shortage.

In the Delta, she learns of the surveillance machine that monitors the Burmese population.  Military Intelligence (MI) is everywhere and can be anyone, hearing every word, knowing of every disparaging remark made.  It is as controlling as the ‘telescreen’ from “1984 ”that monitors movement and gathers information on peoples’ daily lives.

The people never escape the eye of the ‘Thought Police’.

FINDING GEORGE ORWELL IN BURMA is an impressive work I highly recommend. Emma Larkin successfully tells the story of Burma, and Orwell’s time there, in an easy manner that takes the reader along for the ride. You see the people.  You hear each of them talk.  You witness the land, seeing the former prominence now in disarray.  You encounter the governmental oppression the people face, as your presence in the country is questioned at every turn.

Burma, from what Larkin writes here, was once prosperous in a myriad of ways.  Beatrice Thompson, a friend’s sister Larkin meets in Moulmein, an Anglo-Burmese woman commented on how when things were good (before the generals oppressed the people with their control) the people dined on lobster.  Today, under the military rule of the generals, it would cost a month’s wages to even consider such an extravagance.

FINDING GEORGE ORWELL IN BURMA should be in every high school classroom, a part of all high school curriculums.  It speaks of literature, history, and politics all within the same one story.  It tells of a 20^th century writer, the historical records of an impoverished people, and the consequences of not giving people a say.  The 1988 student uprising that called for democratic reforms against the totalitarian rule was met with the iron fist of utter slaughter.  Soldiers indiscriminately killed at will, slaughtering whoever got in their way.

Do we hear of that over here in the West?  I can’t say it ever trickled past my ears.  The generals whitewashed the events, erasing the history of their country like Winston Smith rewrote events in “1984”, even to the point of changing the country’s name (Burma is now called Myanmar) and discrediting the daughter of a national hero.  Read this remarkable story today, less it happens where you live as well.